FRIENDS.

The following letters were addressed to the Editor of the Friends' Review
in Philadelphia, in reference to certain changes of principle and
practice in the Society then beginning to be observable, but which have
since more than justified the writer's fears and solicitude.

I.

AMESBURY, 2d mo., 1870.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE REVIEW.

ESTEEMED FRIEND,--If I have been hitherto a silent, I have not been an
indifferent, spectator of the movements now going on in our religious
Society. Perhaps from lack of faith, I have been quite too solicitous
concerning them, and too much afraid that in grasping after new things we
may let go of old things too precious to be lost. Hence I have been
pleased to see from time to time in thy paper very timely and fitting
articles upon a _Hired Ministry_ and _Silent Worship_.

The present age is one of sensation and excitement, of extreme measures
and opinions, of impatience of all slow results. The world about us
moves with accelerated impulse, and we move with it: the rest we have
enjoyed, whether true or false, is broken; the title-deeds of our
opinions, the reason of our practices, are demanded. Our very right to
exist as a distinct society is questioned. Our old literature--the
precious journals and biographies of early and later Friends--is
comparatively neglected for sensational and dogmatic publications. We
bear complaints of a want of educated ministers; the utility of silent
meetings is denied, and praying and preaching regarded as matters of will
and option. There is a growing desire for experimenting upon the dogmas
and expedients and practices of other sects. I speak only of admitted
facts, and not for the purpose of censure or complaint. No one has less
right than myself to indulge in heresy-hunting or impatience of minor
differences of opinion. If my dear friends can bear with me, I shall not
find it a hard task to bear with them.

But for myself I prefer the old ways. With the broadest possible
tolerance for all honest seekers after truth! I love the Society of
Friends. My life has been nearly spent in laboring with those of other
sects in behalf of the suffering and enslaved; and I have never felt like
quarrelling with Orthodox or Unitarians, who were willing to pull with
me, side by side, at the rope of Reform. A very large proportion of my
dearest personal friends are outside of our communion; and I have learned
with Joh